Tag: Color

Sarawak is located in Borneo, Malaysia and we are now in Kuching. My header is from Lankayan Island in Sabah and the one above was taken in 2016 while the rest are all new.
The playful children may represent the joy and harmony found here in amazing Borneo.

I haven’t had much time left to create new posts or to visit You but next week I’m back to my everyday life in Malta and my lovely Basenji dog Fanny. Take care out there!!

Yes, I know, we are all almost back to our everyday life again and it’s the third day of the New Year 2019. Some may have noticed that I let my blog rest during the festive season, that was without any special reason.Above, two typical images of Malta. Greenery all over the island and yellow flowers, even though it’s winter. And when you see the different colored balconies in the cluttered but yet charming surroundings, it’s easy to guess where you are.

From yesterdays visit to Il-Gżira Manoel / Manoel Island in Gzira. I also noticed that the mimosa trees got buds and they will soon bloom, in February.But, it feels colder than cold, especially when I walk with Fanny on the cliffs along the Mediterranean sea. Strong winds, 12 degrees but luckily the sun shines. The forecast says it will drop to 4 degrees at night!The new year has just begun and we know nothing about the future but it looks bright with lots of love and joy. Take care out there!!!
Anita & Fanny

These pictures are all from last Friday’s trip to Majjistral National Park. The paths are narrow along the steep slopes of dried clay down to the sea. Not a place to walk after heavy rain.But the scenery changes and Fanny is surrounded by greenery…

Very commmon throughout the year.

Not so common, a new plant for me, it’s acually a flower!

…while I photographing plants.

I was happy to find so many colorful flowers growing here on the island in late December.
Malta is a lovely little island to live on all year round, unless you long for snow and a white Christmas.

Last Friday we went to Majjistral National Park in Il-Mellieħa. We haven’t been there since spring. It was 18 degrees, and a bit windy but it was really nice to walk on the cliffs again along the Mediterranean Sea.

Fanny really enjoyed running around freely in the green countryside.

I came home with more than hundreds of images in my camera.These were just a part of them, there will be more from the park in my next post.
Hope you enjoyed!

Fanny has found a new friend and they really enjoy playing with each other. There are very few of the breed Basenji here in Malta so it was lucky they met, that we met the owners of this beautiful one year old male.

Kimbo

Fanny

Fun in the sun as they run around in the green grass in Ta Qali park.
I feel warm in my heart when I see them so happy together……and now we are planning to buy another Basenji! It’s an amazing breed with a lovely personality!

The realistic lifesized painted-bronze work by J. Seward Johnson Jr. depicts a man about 30 years old carrying a boy, about 4-years old on his shoulders. The boy has taken the man’s hat and is about to put it on himself as the man’s left arm reaches for the hat and his right hand grips the boy by the right ankle. Behind the work is a mural of a carousel, leaving the impression that the pair are at a fair or carnival.
Santa Barbara, California, United States.

This is my first entry for Nancy Merrill’s photo challenge, where the theme for the week is Blue.
Where the first picture of the boy in blue jeans was taken, I will show in a later post.Blue color in two different pools, or maybe the same pool but from different angles in different light.

Old and new surrounded by blue…Back to the pool for a dip in the blue……before embarking on this sailboat for a trip on the Mediterranean blue sea.

It’s hard to believe that this creature will transform into a colorful moth. I’ve never seen such a big caterpillar. It’s about 15 cm/6 inches. Could be an Elephant Hawk-moth, Deilephila elpenor but I’m not sure.

Now, that caterpillar was not yet colorful so here’s some sunshine from Ta Qali……where the grass was wet with dew.A spider’s web along with dew create a nice pattern. Nature is an amazing world to explore and we must all do what we can to preserve it. “We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet.”—Stephen Hawking

Food for thought can be that earth is home to millions of species, but just one dominates it.
Wish you all a lovely weekend!“If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth,
man would have no more than four years to live.”—Albert Einstein

I’ve been to Sweden for a few days and the weather felt a bit gray and cold compared to Malta’s mild climate. On the first day I went for a walk in the surroundings of Älvsjö, a suburb of Stockholm, in search of colors.

Autumn colors.The final countdown…

“And all at once summer collapsed into fall”
– Oscar Wilde –

A cute little house where birds can eat some seeds. I also saw lots of Snowberries, snöbär.“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower”.
-Albert Camus-

Both images above are from a suburb outside Stockholm in Sweden. I myself prefer the one with the blue sky. Although both images give an exciting impression of the difference between seasons in the northern Europe.A farmhouse in Gozo, Malta.

Maltese residential buildings.This was how it looked when I grew up outside Stockholm and this is how it still looks in many suburbs.

Surely it’s surprising to discover what amazing bird species there are around the world. This one looks unique.When I saw this “sculpture” at a distance in Siracusa, Sicily, I was absolutely sure it was real. Until I came close and my dog began to nose around his feet. Then he couldn’t sit still any longer without laughing and he began to talk. I’ve seen many kinds of these players before but nobody as real like this one.
A really fun and unexpected surprise.Shooting with the macro lens often gives unexpected surprises.

It may be surprising to look at a fly with its amazing faceted eyes……or to see a hairy butterfly.

A few weeks ago there was no greenery at all in Ta Qali National Park. After the summer heat it was very dry. Then the rainy season began and nature woke up again. Although it’s October and the winter season awaits, it feels almost like spring is here. Fanny can merrily run around in the high grass again, surrounded by yellow flowers.

In Malta you will not find colorful autumn leaves, but cones may also have autumn colors.I haven’t seen these beautiful flowers since last spring.

This is Malta in October.
In January it becomes colder before the real spring begins in February when the almond tree blossoms.
A pretty pleasant winter awaits.

Macro photography is always fun and I guess this is a hornet, Vespa crabro, or Bålgeting as we say in Swedish. I see many of them now among our hibiscus on the terrace. Sadly, with fewer plants the butterflies are gone.The plant blooms but the leaves are more yellow than green. Perhaps more care and nutrition are needed. Finally, there are lots of spiders to find in Ta Qali National Park, this one is about two inches. More to come…

I just couldn’t resist buying these roses, for no special reason at all. Three pink and two white. It doesn’t show but they are twice as big as usual and they still last after five days. I love the soft colors, I love pink…It’s told that pink is not just a color, it’s an attitude. Either you love it or hate it, but there must also be something in between depending on the shades and where the color is seen. Who doesn’t like flamingos…

A barefoot man looks at the wakes on the sea after the stormy weather.

Sailing in the Mediterranean Sea when the weather is clear in October.

The vision of the little man shows the simplicity of humanity on earth.

We have variable weather now here in Malta with sun and blue sky and gray days with rain, while the first stormy weather has passed. (Please click on a circle to enlarge, each image has a short text.)…and when it’s gray and rainy, there are always colors to find that can brighten our days.Autumn is here to stay but we have varannandagsväder as we call it in Swedish. Yesterday I had to bring my umbrella while walking with Fanny, today it’s clear sky and 27 degrees. Wish you all a wonderful weekend!

When the prickly pear cactus fruit are ready to eat, it’s autumn. This delicious fruit has a sweet, melon-like aroma and grows wild throughout Malta and Gozo. Tasty and said to be healthy but with a prickly skin. This giant flower, like the other images in this post were chosen for their colors, to give a sense of autumn. First of October and yet few signs of autumn while the temperature slowly drops, today we have 28 degrees. Did you know that Malta enjoy around 3,000 hours of sunshine per year, one of the highest rates in Europe!

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
― Albert Camus–

Insects, flowers and pollen. A fantastic combination for reproduction, created by nature.“If we were to wipe out insects alone on this planet, the rest of life and humanity with it would mostly disappear from land. Within a few months”
-E.O. Wilson-

We have some flowers left on our roof terrace and have planted new ones on the lower one.We are in the middle of September and it’s still warm but yet, not too hot. In the Mediterranean it’s 27 degrees.No rain has fallen and what you see is not water from the sky.No, I’ve no feelings of autumn, yet…

Remember in November the lovely September!Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh, so mellow.
When grass was green and grain was yellow.
When you were a tender and callow fellow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow…
Try to remember when life was so tender
That no one wept except the willow.
That dreams were kept beside your pillow.
That love was an ember about to billow.
Try to remember, and if you remember,
Then follow…
Deep in December, it’s nice to remember,
Although you know the snow will follow.
Without a hurt the heart is hollow.
The fire of September that made us mellow.
Deep in December, our hearts should remember
And follow…
– American original text: Harvey Schmidt 1960 –Slightly shortened.

Yes, I’ve been away, again. This time I went to my hometown in Sweden for a few days. I had lots of ideas what to do and what to see, but in three days I didn’t make much of it. I met my three sisters and I met a blog friend that I never met before. Thank you Annette 💕we had much to talk about and time flew too fast.

The images above has nothing to do with the text except that they are two of very few I took during my visit in Stockholm and the fact that these are not to be found in Malta. What you see are two chimneys, lines, signs, a blue sky, colors and angles. No remarkable about that, all depending on how you look at the pictures.

I’ve been away for a while, away from it all, again. This time we went to Gozo, Malta’s sister island which is completely different from the main island. Gozo is known as a tranquil haven for a tempo and scene change.

This little island has its own special charm. It’s greener, more rural and with life’s rhythms dictated by the seasons, fishing and agriculture. I love this little island in the middle of the Mediterranean.These images may represent tranquility and life’s rhythm, at the sunset of Dwejra.

I’d like to thank Ben Humberman at WordPress.com who once again highlighted my blog in the Reader under Discover. Thank You so much Ben and thanks to all of my new and old followers!!
You are my inspiration. ❤

We went to Sicily for a week, to get away from it all. Here we rented a villa, Villa Cristina, located in a rural area, but not too far from Siracusa. Simple yet cozy accommodation. The garden was huge and there were orange and olive trees, banana plants, grapes, tomatoes, chili peppers, herbs and much more. I love basil!Sweet tomatoes! I can eat Cherry tomatoes like candies!These bananas were not edible but the flowering herb was both decorative and exotic.
Did you know that banana plants are the world’s largest herb!

I have no idea what this may be.

Oranges, some were a bit too ripe.

Chili pepper

Olives

Green sweet grapes

Could be a kind of herb??

Grapes, grapes, there were lots of grapes.

Above you see some images from the garden where we could pick and eat whatever we liked. There’s more to find in the garden and we did some trips with our car to a few towns and secluded beaches. More to come from Sicily in Italy!

It was a long time since I felt as relaxed as during our stay in Sicily. Away from it all, away from the outside world. Perhaps something we all need from time to time, completely without any internet access.

When I moved to Malta in 2000, there was no such modern architecture on the island.

The old houses are often well-preserved with a genuine Maltese architecture. Today, modern structures at Tigné Point strongly contrast with the buildings in Valletta as well as with most of the towns on the island. The only building that had a modern style when I moved here was the Portomaso Business Tower which opened in 2001. With its 97 meters it is still the tallest building in Malta.

The construction industry is currently booming here in Malta and new high-rise houses are being built almost everywhere. Hopefully they are also thinking of preserving as much as possible of the old houses, otherwise Malta will lose a lot of its charm.

In the midsummer’s eve, according to Swedish tradition, seven kinds of flowers should be picked and put under the pillow. If you like to know how to celebrate midsummer in Sweden Click here. Two very special flowers from a very special blog friend.
Thank you BP, they are still in my kitchen after four years.“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…
it’s about learning to dance in the rain”

It was on our roof terrace I took my first macro images.A few years ago we bought seeds in an attempt to grow rhubarb. But it didn’t succeed.

Spiders! Click on an image to enlarge.

It’s early in the spring and my dear man is cleaning while I take a selfie in the window of our office.

I’m not sure how many different kinds of flowers we have had but these are some of them.

One of my husband’s many fun experiments. Can you really fry an egg in the sun? Obviously!!Our terrace as it once looked and below, what it looks like right now. Yes, added some color. Our office, my dear husbands atelier and our dining room that we use every summer are gone after twelve years. Of our flowers and plants there are only a very few left and so are the butterflies and other insects. Looking at the stars in the sky and the moon that shine but this is not my Seventh heaven anymore.Fanny, Yeah, come on!!! Rock ‘n’ roll!!!

All images in this post have I taken on our roof terrace over the years gone by……apart from the last one.